RHAMNACEAB. 6ll 



X. 1MPATIENS L. 



Characters of family, as given above. [Name in allusion to the elastically 

 bursting pods.] 



Flowers orange or orange-yellow, mottled; spur incurved. I. /. bijlora. 



Flowers pale yellow ; spur short, spreading. 2. /. aurea. 



1. Impatiens bifldra Walt. Spotted Touch-me-not. Silver-leaf. 

 (I. F. f. 2388.) Annual, glabrous, 6-15 dm. high. Leaves ovate or elliptic, pale 

 and glaucous beneath, 3.5-8 cm. long, generally obtuse, coarsely toothed; peduncles 

 2-4-flowered; bracts linear; flowers horizontal, 1.8-2.4 cm. long; saccate sepal 

 conic, longer than broad, contracted into a slender spur of one- half its length, 

 which is 2-toothed at the apex. In moist grounds, N. S. to Ore., Alaska, Fla. and 

 Kans. Spurs are occasionally developed on the 2 small exterior sepals, and spur- 

 less flowers have been observed. July-Oct. 



2. Impatiens aurea Muhl. Pale Touch-me-not. (I. F. f. 2389. ) Similar 

 to the preceding, but larger and stouter. Flowers pale yellow, sparingly dotted 

 with reddish-brown, or sometimes dotless, 2.4-3 cm - l° n g; saccate sepal dilated- 

 conic, about as broad as long, abruptly contracted into a scarcely incurved notched 

 spur, less than one-third its length; bracts of the pedicels lanceolate to ovate, acute. 

 In similar situations, Quebec to Ore., Ga. and Kans. July-Sept. 



Order 21. RHAMNALES. 



Shrubs, vines, or small trees, with nearly always alternate leaves. 

 Flowers small, regular. Sepals mostly more or less united. Petals dis- 

 tinct or wanting. Stamens as many as the sepals or calyx-lobes, and 

 alternate with them, opposite the petals when these are present. Ovary 

 compound, superior ; ovules erect. 

 Shrubs, small trees, or vines; petals 4 or 5, or none; fruit a drupe or capsule. 



Fam. 1. Rhamnaceae. 

 Vines, climbing by tendrils, rarely shrubs; petals caducous; fruit a berry. 



Fam. 2. Vitaceae. 



Family 1. RHAMNACEAE Dumort. 



Buckthorn Family. 



Erect or climbing shrubs, or small trees, often thorny. Leaves sim- 

 ple, stipulate, mainly alternate, often 3-5-nerved. Stipules small, decidu- 

 ous. Inflorescence commonly of cymes or panicles. Flowers small, reg- 

 ular, perfect or polygamous. Calyx-limb 4-5-toothed. Petals 4-5, 

 inserted on the calyx, or none. Stamens 4-5, inserted with the petals 

 and opposite them ; anthers short, versatile. Disk fleshy. Ovary sessile, 

 free from or immersed in the disk, 2-5- (often 3-) celled ; ovules 1 in 

 each cavity, anatropous. Fruit often 3-celled. Seeds solitary in the 

 cavities, erect ; endosperm fleshy, rarely none; embryo large; cotyledons 

 flat. About 45 genera and 575 species, of temperate and warm regions. 



Ovary free from the disk; fruit a drupe. 



Petals sessile, entire; stone of the drupe 2 celled 1. Berchemia. 



Petals short-clawed or none; stones of the drupe 2-4. 2. Rhamnus. 



Ovary adnate to the disk at its base; fruit dry. 3. Ceanothus. 



1. BERCHEMIA Neck. 



Climbing or erect shrubs, with alternate petioled ovate or oblong pinnately- 

 veined leaves, and small greenish white flowers in axillary or terminal clusters, or 

 rarely solitary. Petals 5, sessile, concave or cucullate. Stamens 5; filaments fili- 

 form. Disk filling the calyx-tube, covering the ovary. Drupe oval, obtuse, com- 

 Dre-sed, its flesh thin and coriaceous, its stone 2-celled. Seeds linear-oblong; 

 cotyledons thin. [Name unexplained.] Alxmt 10 species, the following in south, 

 eastern N. Am., the others in Asia and Africa. 



